The invention relates to a fish harvester and, more particularly, to a fishing vessel adapted to capture and land schools of fish.
Fishing vessels have heretofore been proposed for catching schools of fish, as exemplified by the following U.S. Pats. Nos. issued to: Frissell, 1,486,485, on Mar. 11, 1924; Puretic, 3,124,890, on Mar. 17, 1964; and Miller et al., 3,786,592, on Jan. 22, 1974.
Previous proposals have involved disposing a forwardly open cage formed at least partly of netting, at the bow of a vessel. The cage is to be lowered into the water by means of a boom and cable system so that small fish such as shrimp can be contained by the cage as the vessel advances through the water. The fish are then to be conveyed from the cage to the vessel for storage. Once the fish have been brought ashore, they are to be sorted into various categories according to edibility, etc. Importantly, the impractical design of many prior art proposals renders them highly unlikely to achieve significant commercial success.
Besides being of a nature which could impede the attainment of sufficient speed to maximize the size of the catch, many prior proposed vessels may be lacking from a durability standpoint. For example, boom and cable systems can be very vulnerable to damage during storms.
Many prior proposed vessels are also deficient from an efficiency standpoint in that the large-scale capturing of fish larger than shrimp, for example, may not be practicable. Also, considerable time is lost in having to wait until the vessel reaches port before sorting of the fish can be conveniently performed.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide a novel fish harvesting vessel.
It is another object of the invention to provide a novel fish harvesting vessel which is capable of achieving sufficient speed to maximize the size of a catch.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel fish harvesting vessel which is capable of withstanding rough weather.
It is an additional object of the invention to provide a novel fish harvesting vessel which makes possible the mass capture of larger fish.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a novel fish harvesting vessel which facilitates sorting of fish aboard the vessel.